Nepali Congress Prepares to Update Memberships for Dissident Factions

Kathmandu. The Nepali Congress is preparing to automatically update the memberships of senior leaders from the outgoing President Sher Bahadur Deuba faction and Dr. Shekhar Koirala faction, who are reluctant to digitally update active memberships. The deadline for updating memberships has been extended again because leaders and members close to the Deuba and Shekhar factions, who had already renewed their memberships for the 15th General Convention, were hesitant to digitally update them. The committee had initially given the period from April 1 to April 30 for updating memberships. After it was not completed within that time, it was extended by 21 days to May 21. Even within that period, leaders and cadres of the Deuba and Koirala factions did not update them, so the deadline has been extended until the night of May 28. A meeting of the active membership management committee held on Thursday extended the deadline by another week, targeting the update of memberships of leaders and cadres from the 'other' faction. Pradip Paudel, convener of the membership management committee and party general secretary, informed that the deadline has been extended by a week solely to update the memberships of leaders from the 'other' faction. 'There is internal conflict within the party. The impact of that conflict is seen in the updating of active memberships,' General Secretary Paudel told Ratopati. 'That is a political conflict. Membership is a continuous process. However, by linking it with this, we have extended the time by a week to resolve the conflict and update everyone's active membership.' When asked, 'The leaders of the 'other' faction are saying that they have already renewed their active memberships for the 15th General Convention in Poush, so why are they refusing to update now?', General Secretary Paudel said, 'We have extended the time precisely to update their memberships. We urge our senior leaders. If they do not come to update at the ward level and the central office, we will do it ourselves. The political conflict is separate. We will not exclude leaders who have dedicated their lives to the party from the update process.' The central committee, formed after the 14th General Convention, saw the outgoing President Deuba and leader Dr. Shekhar Koirala faction disagreeing, and a special general convention led by then-general secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwaprakash Sharma elected a new working committee under Thapa's leadership. Subsequently, the Deuba and Shekhar factions claimed that the special general convention was illegal and approached the Election Commission and the Supreme Court demanding that the committee formed from it not be recognized. However, the dispute intensified after the commission and the supreme court recognized the committee led by Thapa, which emerged from the special general convention. After that, the working committee formed from the special general convention decided that members who renewed their memberships for the 15th General Convention by last Poush 10 would also have to 'digitally update' them. Leaders from the Deuba and Shekhar factions have been stating that they will not accept this decision. They have been urging that since memberships have already been renewed for the 15th General Convention, updating should not be made mandatory. The outgoing committee's president Deuba, acting president Purna Bahadur Khadka, vice-president Dhanraj Gurung, joint secretaries Mahalakshmi Upadhyay 'Dina', Umakant Chaudhary, Kishore Singh Rathore, Badri Pandey, former office bearers Bimalendra Nidhi, Krishna Prasad Sitaula, Prakashman Singh, Dr. Shashank Koirala, and most senior leaders have not updated their memberships yet. The committee has stated that it will update their memberships itself. 'We will secure the memberships of our senior leaders by updating them ourselves. We value the contributions they have made to the party so far,' said General Secretary Paudel. Former joint secretary Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat, a leader from the Deuba faction, said that they would have no objection if all those who renewed their memberships by Poush were digitally updated. However, he stated that they would not accept a situation where some are updated based on the condition of coming in person and others are not. 'We have no objection if all the renewed memberships are accepted and updated. All memberships except those deducted by the district and ward should be updated,' Dr. Mahat told Ratopati. 'However, updating should not be made a prerequisite for participating in the convention. It should be done automatically for everyone.' He stated that the condition of making it mandatory is unacceptable to them. 'It's not that we are saying not to do it digitally, but we are opposing the statement that it won't be done if you can't come, and it will only be done if you come,' said Dr. Mahat. 'It's not enough to just update the leaders' memberships; all renewed memberships must be updated. It should not be said later that you didn't come to update, so you can't participate in the convention.' For the 15th General Convention, 590,000 Nepali Congress members had renewed their active memberships by last Poush 15. Currently, that number has decreased due to the Deuba and Shekhar factions not updating them. General Secretary Paudel informed that the number of those updating has crossed 400,000. General Secretary Paudel claimed that all memberships renewed in Poush would be updated within the extended period. Paudel also expressed optimism that efforts to resolve the internal political conflict within the party, along with membership updates, are underway and will bear fruit by the end of May. General Secretary Paudel stated that while active membership is a technical matter and the political issue is separate, efforts are being made to resolve the problem at once because it is linked to active membership. He said that talks are ongoing between the establishment and 'other' factions' leaders for this purpose. 'Efforts are being made at the top level to resolve the conflict. Leaders are in continuous discussion,' Paudel said. 'We expect an agreement to be reached by the end of May.' Informal talks have been ongoing in recent days between Vice-President Bishwaprakash Sharma and former acting President Purna Bahadur Khadka for resolving the internal conflict within the party, under the initiative of leader Ramesh Lekhak. Leader Lekhak admitted that informal talks are ongoing between Khadka and Sharma through his initiative. Lekhak stated that he is coordinating discussions between Khadka and Sharma to resolve the party conflict. 'I have been coordinating discussions between Purna Dai (Purna Bahadur Khadka) and Vishwa Ji (Bishwaprakash Sharma) for resolving the party conflict,' Lekhak told Ratopati. 'Informal talks are ongoing. I have not participated in the talks. I understand the discussions have been positive.' Lekhak is a leader from the Deuba faction. He is known as a confidant of outgoing President Deuba. For conflict resolution, President Thapa had met Khadka and Dr. Koirala at their residences in April. President Thapa met Khadka twice and Dr. Koirala once. President Thapa met former acting President Khadka on April 6 and 23, and also met leader Dr. Koirala on April 22.